


To the End of the Line

by denyingmyselfalways



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Bucky Barnes Feels, Bucky Barnes as Captain America, Bucky and Tony are healing, Gen, How Do I Tag, I Apologize For This, I just wanted to write a sad fic, Post-Infinity War, Steve Rogers-friendly, Steve and Tony are healing, Thanos' aliens return to earth, Tony Stark Feels, Tony Stark-friendly, ish, you'll understand
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-22
Updated: 2018-08-22
Packaged: 2019-07-01 04:34:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,643
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15766701
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/denyingmyselfalways/pseuds/denyingmyselfalways
Summary: He stilled his path of carnage as he heard Steve’s heart pound closer. Turning as he touched his shoulder. “You good?!” he yelled over the sounds of the battlefield.“Yeah. Why, you getting sleepy?”Steve smirked a bit at that, twirling and slamming his shield into the face of one of the aliens. “Of boredom, maybe. These guys aren’t putting up much of a fight.”Bucky barked a laugh. “Whatever helps you sleep at night, kid. I won’t consider you any less of a man if you give up now.”Three aliens charged at the pair of them, but Bucky peppered their carcasses full of holes.“I’ll take a break when you do.”“I’m sure your puny asthmatic body can go as long as mine can.”“We’ll see about that, soldier,” Steve replied, throwing his shield at an enemy. It bounced off and shot in Bucky’s direction, but he just caught it and slammed it into two more.





	To the End of the Line

**Author's Note:**

> AAAAAAAAAHHHHHH I'm so sorry. A Bucky-centric one-shot. No ships here. Just sadness.

The sounds were starting to get to him. Normally he was fine with a gunshot or two, but his enhanced ears could hear the sounds of the screams coming from across the battlefield. It was the screaming that really made his aim to waver. Not enough to affect the outcome, just enough for him to notice.

At least he could still Steve’s heartbeat. That was one good thing about the senses that were beginning to scramble his brain.

To be honest, he wasn’t quite sure what was going on. He just knew that a day after he’d been sucked back into reality by the soul stone, Thanos’ army had come back.

And they came back with vengeance.

Before, they had merely been the alien’s puppets, easily disposable and just as easily replaceable. But something in them seemed to have clicked and they fought for blood. Each one becoming more of a challenge than the last.

If it hadn’t been for Stark and his army of suits, the fight would have been futile from the beginning. Bucky would never have thought that he’d ever be grateful to Stark for anything, but as an alien grabbed at him from behind, he couldn’t help but grin as one of the suits blasted the alien off of him.

“Come on, Barnes, you can do better than that!” Tony’s slightly metallic-turned voice called to him before turning back to the fight.

Oh. Perhaps that _hadn’t_ been one of the empty ones.

It became almost like a game, seeing how fast he could take down the monsters. The battlefield was chaotic, and his allies were spread thin, but often one would show up beside him or kill one coming at him from behind. First, it was Clint, shooting an arrow that sprouted into a dozen more. Then it was Okoye, spearing four at a time and flinging their bodies as if they were made of paper. Next, it was that Star-Lord guy, shooting with vengeance and flying around with his space jetpack. But through it all, Bucky would listen for his heartbeat. It was always near but never close enough.

Sometimes when he got too consumed by the job, spraying bullets at bodies, his mind would remind him of its scars and he would begin to lose himself. But that heartbeat. Steve’s precious heartbeat anchored him in reality and pulled him back when he strayed too far.

He stilled his path of carnage as he heard Steve’s heart pound closer. Turning as he touched his shoulder. “You good?!” he yelled over the sounds of the battlefield.

“Yeah. Why, you getting sleepy?”

Steve smirked a bit at that, twirling and slamming his shield into the face of one of the aliens. “Of boredom, maybe. These guys aren’t putting up much of a fight.”

Bucky barked a laugh. “Whatever helps you sleep at night, kid. I won’t consider you any less of a man if you give up now.”

Three aliens charged at the pair of them, but Bucky peppered their carcasses full of holes.

“I’ll take a break when you do.”

“I’m sure your puny asthmatic body can go as long as mine can.”

“We’ll see about that, soldier,” Steve replied, throwing his shield at an enemy. It bounced off and shot in Bucky’s direction, but he just caught it and slammed it into two more.

He tossed it back and without breaking stride, spun and landed a kick in the face of another. Steve’s heartbeat faded a bit as Steve made his way across the battlefield.

And Buck got back in the zone. Shooting and stabbing and killing everything in sight.

And then it happened.

Bucky’s actions stuttered. He wasn’t quite sure what it was until he listened. The _heartbeat_. It was strangely slow.

“Steve?!” Bucky shouted over the chaos, but the noise was too much, and any possible response was drowned out in the carnage.

His gaze swept over the battlefield, but still, he didn’t see him.

“Steve?!” he called again, running in the direction that the heartbeat seemed to be coming from.

An alien screamed, and Bucky’s gaze snapped to it. His own heartbeat slowed in time with Steve’s. His gaze turned as red as the blood oozing from his best friend. The alien was dead on the ground before he’d even realized what had happened.

Bucky crouched over Steve, hands going to staunch the blood coming from his stomach. “Steve? Steve? Steve, are you-”

Steve smiled that _infuriating_ smile of his, but the effect was lost due to him coughing up blood.

“No. No, no. It’s not supposed to be you. It’s not, no…” Bucky wasn’t supposed to be able to cry. But impossibilities happen every day. Like that skimpy _idiot_ from Brooklyn becoming a superhero. Or that superhero getting hurt.

Steve reached up and gripped Bucky’s non-metal arm. “Buck, I-”

“It’s okay. It’s okay, you’re going to be okay. _Someone get a medic over here. Captain America is down!”_ Bucky called into his coms. _“I repeat, this idiot who thinks he can take on an entire army by himself is down. Please… Please, someone… please.”_

Steve was shaking his head. “No, Buck, I… it’s okay.”

 _“NO!_ It’s not okay you lumpy idiot! I can’t believe that you-”

“Lumpy?” Steve coughed out, smirking a bit. “That’s the best you can come up with?”

Bucky huffed, scrubbing the tears from his face with one hand. “It’s a bit difficult to come up with insults on such a short notice, you know? I have to have time to plan these things.”

“What… do you… stay up all night… coming up with different names you can… call me?”

“Of course, I do, Stevie boy! What else would I do with my time? _Please, someone, I need a medic. Steve… Steve is down, someone copy.”_

“I don’t know, sleep?”

Bucky would have responded if, he could open his mouth without screaming. Not Steve. Steve wasn’t supposed to go. He was never supposed to go to war, much less become Captain America. He was supposed to sleep over at his house and shine his shoes, and forget his keys, and make breakfast, and tease him about his perfect hair and perfect teeth and how he always knew how to talk to women. He was supposed to be socially awkward, and not know how to dance, and hate going on blind dates. He was supposed to be… just Steve. If there was one good thing about Steve Rogers skinny little body it was the fact that Bucky was assured that he’d never go to war. He’d always be as safe as anyone could be.

But here they were.

Why was he crying? He was a bloody assassin. He didn’t cry. But then, he wasn’t supposed to smile either. Steve changed both of those things about him.

“Buck…”

“Steve, you’ll be alright. You’ll heal right up with that super body of yours, and be back to annoying the crap out of people in a week, you hear me? Remember you gotta-”

“Bucky, it’s okay.”

“No, no it’s _not-_ ”

“Tell Tony… tell Tony I’m sorry. Tell him not to kill you, but it’s not his fault. It… it was mine.”

_“Steve.”_

“And tell him to take care of Wanda.”

 _“Steve you aren’t leaving_.”

“Bucky!” Steve ground out. More blood oozed out onto Bucky’s red-stained fingers. “I-I’m not going to pull out… of this one. You guys need… needed a push.”

“NO! No, you idiot, you can’t-” Bucky sobbed. “You can’t _leave me. You’re all I have_.”

“The team. You can have… them too.” Steve’s words were getting more and more strained.

“No, no, it’s not… they aren’t you.” Bucky pleaded. He reached up to press his comm again, but Steve grabbed his arm.

“It’s okay Buck.”

“NO-! It’s not… okay. How is _anything_ about this _okay?!”_

Steve took a shuddering breath. “It’s… It’s the end of the… line.”

_“NO! You can’t- you can’t say that you stupid-”_

Steve smiled that _stupid_ smile, his eyes fluttering.

Ba-dum. Ba-dum. Ba-dum.

Even when he’d gotten captured, he knew Steve would be okay. Even when they experimented on his body, he’d been able to fall asleep knowing that Steve would be okay. Even when he’d been brainwashed by Hydra, he’d been pulled out by Steve.

Ba-dum. Ba-dum. Ba-dum.

But…

Ba-dum. Ba-dum. Ba-

Steve’s whole body relaxed, and perhaps he would have looked peaceful if he hadn’t had blood oozing from his abdomen and a super-soldier screaming at him.

 _“STEVE! Steve, please…_. Steve.”

A group of aliens must have spotted them because Bucky heard the thumping of several pairs of feet approaching. But he didn’t care. Steve… Steve…

The sound of a laser and a couple bodies dropping to the ground.

The Iron Man suit landed next to them. “…Steve?” Tony’s voice was vulnerable. Raw.

Bucky didn’t say anything. He just looked up, tears and snot and who-knows-what streaked across his face.

The face-plate opened, revealing Tony’s battered face, filled with too many emotions.

“Why isn’t he getting up?” Tony snapped.

Bucky’s face crumpled, and he just shook his head.

Tony glared. “Why isn’t he _getting up?!”_

“Tony… he’s… he.”

“No. _No._ ”

“He said he was sorry… for everything.”

“ _NO!”_ Tony screamed, running to the pair and kneeling by Steve’s body. “You idiot, wake up!”

“Tony!” Bucky said, composing himself enough to sound stern. “He’s… he’s gone.”

Tony’s gaze met his and Bucky saw the exact moment when he accepted it. But still, he denied it.

“No.”

Bucky stood, glaring at the hover-whatever-those-things-were that got to them one minute too late. His glare lightened when he saw the man on it looking horrified. Bucky picked up Steve and lay him on the transporter. “It’s too late. Take him back to the castle,” Bucky snapped, watching as it rode away.

“He’s not gone. He _can’t_ be. He’s Steve Rogers. He-”

An alien’s shriek interrupted them, and they turned.

Bucky watched Tony’s expression shift from denial to absolute _rage._

One could say the battle was over the moment that alien decided to attack Steve Rogers. Because Bucky picked up Steve’s abandoned shield, leaped into battle side-by-side with Tony Stark, and the two unleashed _hell_ upon the race of aliens that thought to attack their homeworld was a good idea.

They spun, and kicked, and flew, and shot, and bloodied their hands, and never once looked back.

“FRIDAY full power arc reactor,” Tony said once, and a beam of death shot from his chest and annihilated any alien in its path.

Bucky hated that he was good with the Wakandan shield. He wished he was terrible. Because he could never replace Steve. He would never be as good as Steve. He was the cheap sequel that no one wanted.

Except, perhaps, for Tony. Who fought with him flawlessly, as if they’d practiced together. Perhaps they had… in an indirect way. Tony had trained with Steve. And Steve with Bucky.

The others, oblivious to the problem, but rejuvenated by Bucky and Tony’s pure annihilation, joined the fight… and it was over before it had truly begun.

Half of Bucky wished it wasn’t. He still wanted to kill something. To stab and maim and kill just to feel _something_ in the empty socket that some might call a heart. His knees hit the ground. He didn’t want to go back He wanted to sit here and wallow in his misery forever and never have to look at the empty expression on Steve’s face. He put his face in his hands and he _sobbed._

For Steve.

For himself.

For the life neither really got to live.

Tony didn’t say anything. Bucky heard his suit discharge and the man beneath the hard shell stepped out. He looked broken, raw. Full of too many emotions. He crumpled, staring at everything and nothing.

Both men stared at the shield in Bucky’s hands. He dropped it, and it clattered to the ground.

“Tony? James?”

Bucky looked up to see Natasha the only one willing to approach. She looked concerned. “What’s wrong?”

Bucky just blinked at her, weary of a life full of too many heartbreaks.

“He’s gone. He’s really gone,” Tony muttered, almost to himself.

“Where’s Steve?” Sam asked, walking over. So oblivious. Too oblivious to the life-altering occurrence not ten minutes ago.

Fear shone on Natasha’s face, an expression he’d never witnessed on her. Bucky shook his head. “Sam. Sam…”

It seemed to hit him all at once, but he didn’t break the silence. The others were muttering, wondering what was going on? Where was Steve? Why was Bucky crying? Why was Tony crying?

Natasha did. She whimpered. Her sobs matched Buckys. Then they seemed to realize. They seemed to get it when they saw the Black Widow crying. For she only ever cries for those who’ve fallen.

The team seemed to cave in on themselves, pulling closer together for comfort, but Bucky did not join them. He left the shield behind and he ran. No one called out for him. They understood.

He ran as fast as his enhanced legs could carry him, past the castle and on. He didn’t know what he was running for until he found his old hut, with the goats surrounding it. He collapsed onto the ground and let them meander up to him, one brave one trying to nibble on his clothes.

Steve. Steve. _Steve._ He reached up to pull out his comm, frowning when he noticed it was dented right in the center. Why-? He blinked when he’d remembered who’d given it to him. Steve had.

_You guys needed the push._

He knew. That idiot _knew_ they might target him. He knew they would have lost if they hadn’t had anything to Avenge. Bucky curled in on himself. He didn’t want to win. He’d rather lose a thousand battles with his best friend by his side than win one without him in his life.

He heard the craft pull from a few miles away but made them come to him.

He only uncurled when Tony stepped down next to him. He looked up at the war-weathered man and wished that they didn’t always meet in the worst circumstances. Perhaps they would have been friends in another life. If not for Tony’s parents.

But then Tony handed him Steve’s old shield, not the Wakandan one that Steve had used recently, but the original, and Bucky still wondered if there was a chance they could still be friends.

“How-? Bucky croaked out, but Tony shook his head.

“I brought it with me, but… he declined it. He said he didn’t want me to feel guilted into giving it to him. I said he was an idiot, but-” Tony’s voice cracked, and he pushed it closer to Bucky. “I think he’d want you to have it.”

Bucky reached out tentatively and grasped it with his metal hand. What a pair those two made. Vibranium against vibranium.

“I don’t think…” Bucky shook his head.  “I don’t think I can take this.”

“Can’t and won’t are two different things.”

“I can’t take this Tony. I can’t… _be_ … Captain America.”

Tony sighed, weary, and repeated: “Can’t and won’t are two different things.”

Bucky glared down at the red, white, and blue. “I didn’t ask for any of this. I didn’t ask to be… me.”

Tony just shook his head sadly. “Did any of us?”

The two men locked eyes for a moment. Two men grieving a friend.

Bucky stood, hoisting up the shield. “Let’s get back to the others.”

Tony’s smile was sad, full of more pain than should be survivable. But it was still a smile. For no matter what the universe handed them, whether cold bodies or shields, they would carry the weight of it on their shoulders. It was Captain America and Iron Man, after all. Name a more iconic duo.

I’ll wait.

**Author's Note:**

> That was not a challenge for you to start commenting more iconic duos, thanks XD


End file.
